Dora Anim, Chief Operating Officer at Greater Cincinnati Foundation (GCF) is responsible for assisting the CEO in providing leadership and vision for GCF. Her day to day management efforts ensure that GCF effectively accomplishes its mission and develops a high performing work culture. She is also responsible for ensuring the organization has the proper operational controls, reporting procedures and systems in place to grow and promote operational efficiency. Dora is a talented facilitator, coach, avid learner and cultivator of diverse talent. She previously worked at the Health Collaborative where programs under her leadership included care transitions, advanced care planning, disaster preparedness, patient safety and quality improvement, health care quality transparency, consumer engagement, business intelligence and coordination of regional Epic users groups.

Dora currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Springer School and Center, the Council on Aging, Episcopal Retirement Services Board and the WE (Women’s Excel) Executive Advisory Board for the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. She has a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Cincinnati.

In his time at The Diversity Center, Brian has been all over Northeast Ohio facilitating workshops for thousands of students and hundreds of educators. In his role as Senior Program Associate, Brian has aimed and honed his approach to a simple concept: just getting people to try to have a conversation with one another. As Brian sees it, “in opening up, today’s future leaders will not only grow to find confidence in themselves and their stories but more importantly it will allow them to see the different perspectives and strengths in others’ journeys.” And to Brian, this is what this work is all about – having real, honest dialogue that allows the students and staff to recognize people for who they are, not what they are.

Eric Avner is convinced philanthropy can do more to build cities. As Vice President of The Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation since April, 2008, he directs the Foundation’s community development grantmaking, focusing on Cincinnati’s distinctive urban neighborhoods, a talented regional workforce, and a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. Eric also founded and was CEO of People’s Liberty (2014-2019), the Foundation’s 8,000sf philanthropic lab that explored a new role for foundations interested in investing in place by investing in people.

Eric received his B.A. (Geography - Urban Systems) from McGill University (Montreal) in 1993 and attended Cornell University to pursue an M.A. (Historic Preservation Planning). He currently serves on the boards of Philanthropy Ohio, Cincinnati Development Fund, Catalytic Development Funding Corp. of Northern Kentucky, Represent OTR, and ArtWorks Cincinnati. In 2018, he was elected to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Community Advisory Committee and sits on the Cincinnati New Market Advisory Committee.

Courtenay A. Barton joined the foundation in September 2017 as a National Urban Fellow and was hired in September 2018 as Program Manager for Arts & Culture. Courtenay has more than 12 years’ experience in nonprofit management in media, arts, and education. Prior to joining the foundation, Courtenay was the Associate Director of Stewardship at the Brooklyn College Foundation. She also had roles at New York City’s public television station Thirteen/WNET and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Courtenay earned a bachelor of arts degree in English, Creative Writing, and African American Studies from Columbia University. She also received a master of public administration degree from Bernard M. Baruch College, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. Her Master’s thesis, “A Foundation for Equity: Philanthropic Strategies to End Racial Inequity in Cleveland” won a Philip J. Rutledge Award for Outstanding Academic Capstone Achievement.

Nelson is the Program Director for Neighborhood Revitalization & Engagement. He rejoined the foundation in January 2018 after spending four years at Saint Luke’s Foundation, where he served as Senior Program Officer for a Strong Neighborhood. In that role, Nelson oversaw their Strong Neighborhood program, with the goal of making enhancements to the built environment and improving social conditions in the Buckeye-Shaker, Mt. Pleasant and Woodland Hills neighborhoods. Before that, Nelson served as Program Officer for the Cleveland Foundation’s Responsive Grantmaking, focusing on community development, environmental sustainability and program management of the Summer Internship program. Nelson has also worked for the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, University Hospitals Health System, Cole Managed Vision, and the American Red Cross. Nelson also served with the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry). He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Psychology from Cleveland State University. Nelson and his wife are empty nesters and live in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland.

Greg has experience in both the state legislature and non-profit sector. A graduate of the University of Akron’s Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, Greg began his career in state policy at a non-profit organization educating General Assembly candidates on energy and public utility issues. Greg was then selected as a member of the esteemed Legislative Service Commission Fellowship and quickly became Senator Troy Balderson’s legislative aide. Having worked on an array of issues dealing with Energy, Public Utilities, Transportation, and Workforce Development, Greg brings valuable knowledge of the legislative and regulatory processes to BMA’s clientele.

Mia is a pathfinder, community curator, and storyteller who steadily engages the leadership and wisdom of people experiencing injustice to chart new visions of American life. She has a gift for making visible and leveraging the brilliance of everyday people so that our collective gifts reach larger spheres of influence, cultural and political change, and create wellbeing for everyone. Mia’s approach marks a departure from traditional institutionalized change work, which seeks solutions from select “experts,” people often removed from the problems they’re charged to solve.

She plays an important role in pointing to people’s lived experiences to inform institutional learning and transformation. In How We Show Up (Hachette, June 2020), her book about how we make family and community, Mia charts swaths of community life and points us toward the promise of our collective vitality. In her work on guaranteed income as Senior Fellow of the Economic Security Project, she taps into the voices and visions of low-income people to re-imagine the American social contract. The media and storytelling fellowship she’s piloting through Chanel Black aims to change the story and the storyteller when it comes to the lives of one of America’s most maligned protagonists: unmarried Black mothers.

Previously, as founding Co-Director of Family Story, Mia lifted up a new national story about what makes a good family. (More love, inclusion, and connection; less marriage, biology, and law.) As Vice President of the Family Independence Initiative, she leveraged the power of data and stories to illuminate and accelerate the initiative low-income families take to improve their lives.

Believing that, taken collectively, we are the guides we most need, Mia has made an art out of inviting people into rich explorations of how we map paths forward. Her New America public dialogue series centering Black women as agents of change; her 2018 City, Arts & Lectures interview with Janet Mock, her 2016 TED conversation with the founders of Black Lives Matter; and her 2015  TED talk  “The Story We Tell About Poverty Isn’t True” (viewed over 1.7 million times) all draw targeted attention to the stories of people who are finding their way into leadership roles despite myriad barriers, while also highlighting the vibrant terrain of all marginalized people who are leading on the ground and solving for tomorrow.

Mia was an inaugural Ascend Fellow and faculty member with The Aspen Institute, a New America California Fellow, and Advocate-in-Residence with University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. She has been published widely and speaks at conferences and universities across the country. Mia, a graduate of Oberlin College, stays “apocalypse ready” by gardening, keeping bees and chickens, studying herbalism, and occasionally practicing archery. Her children, partner, and chosen family are her home.

Jena Bradley’s passions exist at the intersection of racial equity, philanthropy and storytelling. She serves as senior manager on the Community Impact team at United Way of Greater Cincinnati. In this role, she provides leadership to several equity strategies, including the organization’s Black-led Social Change Initiative. Outside of work, Jena is very active in her neighborhood and serves on several boards and volunteer committees.

SeMia is a strategic business consultant and thought leader. With a passion for cross sector knowledge exchange and facilitating real conversations, she engages leaders in innovative thinking. Over the past 20 years, she has provided consulting services in the private, manufacturing, and nonprofit sectors. A veteran of the U.S. Army National Guard, SeMia honorably served our country for six years.

SeMia is currently engaged in the nonprofit sector as the Local Director of Emerald Cities Cleveland. In this role, she actively participates in moving forward an agenda aimed at achieving a successful transition to a sustainable, resilient, prosperous and equitable economy driven by safe, renewable energy. Prior to Emerald Cities, SeMia was actively engaged in the social justice community as Director of Institutional Advancement at the Urban League of Greater Cleveland.

She holds a master's degree in Organizational Systems Design from the Baldwin Wallace University (formerly Baldwin Wallace College), and a bachelor's degree, with a dual major in Business Administration and Interior Design, from Ursuline College. She is also a graduate of Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland (Class 9) and the Northern Ohio Executive Leadership Institute. In 2016, SeMia was selected as a candidate for a national leadership program designed to further develop leaders across sectors and geographies.

As the leader of the marketing and communications department, Tracy Burt is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the Akron Community Foundation's marketing initiatives and management of the organization's brand. Prior to joining the Akron Community Foundation in 2013, Tracy developed and executed integrated marketing plans for a variety of business-to-business and consumer clients as an account director at a local public relations and marketing agency. She has a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Kent State University.

Dr. Danielle Busby is a licensed clinical psychologist and an Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, TX. She is also the co-founder of Black Mental Wellness, a company providing evidence based information and resources about mental health and behavioral health topics from a Black perspective. In her current role, she primarily serves youth and families experiencing depressive symptoms, suicide risk and symptoms related to trauma and grief.

Dr. Nicole Cammack was born and raised in Richmond, VA. She currently resides in Washington, DC where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with a minor in Human Development from Howard University, and her Master’s Degree and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The George Washington University. Additionally, she completed a specialized postdoctoral fellowship with the Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Dr. Cammack is a licensed Clinical Psychologist in the State of Maryland. She currently serves as the Program Director of the Primary Care-Mental Health Integration clinic, where she provides mental health services to veterans in a co-located primary care setting. Services that she provide include brief individual therapy, couples therapy, and culturally responsive therapeutic groups that focus on race-based trauma, military sexual trauma, and resilience. Lastly, she leads the Diversity Training Subcommittee and promotes efforts to increase diversity and cultural competency among psychology graduate trainees, and she is an active participant on several leadership councils through the VA Medical Center.

Dr. Cammack is passionate about mental health awareness, treatment, and reducing the mental health stigma, particularly as it relates to Black communities. Both her clinical and research interests have continually focused on mental health issues specific to the Black community and identifying ways to address the cultural and systemic issues that impact Black mental health and wellness. This passion is what led to the development of Black Mental Wellness. She is an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., she enjoys traveling, and spending time with her daughter, family, and friends.

As the Director of Communications and Digital Strategy for The Center for Community Solutions, Dani Carlson guides team members in all aspects of the organization’s overall communications goals and spearheaded the efforts to offer a local health and human services journalism grant. Before joining Community Solutions, Dani spent more than a decade as an investigative journalist at television stations across the country, winning multiple awards (including an Emmy) for her reporting. She is a Chicago native and a proud graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School.

Carrie Carpenter is Senior Vice President, Regional Manager of Corporate Affairs for Huntington National Bank, where she directs community engagement strategies for the Cleveland region.

She has more than 25 years of experience engaging leaders in community initiatives, building public relations campaigns, launching charitable programs and designing initiatives to address the needs of cities. Her experience building strategies spans the corporate, nonprofit, philanthropic and public sectors.

She previously served as the President and Executive Director of the Gordon Square Arts District, which leveraged arts and culture for economic development and neighborhood revitalization. 

Carpenter is on the board of the Cleveland Foundation, where she chairs the grantmaking committee and previously chaired the social impact investment committee. She is on the boards of the Arts and Culture Action Committee, Neighborhood Connections and the S.P. Fenn Trust. She previously was president of the board of Cleveland Public Theatre, vice chair of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, vice chair of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission, and on the boards of the Cleveland Leadership Center, the Cleveland International Film Festival and Planned Parenthood of Greater Cleveland. Carpenter earned her B.A. magna cum laude from Kent State University in political science and women’s studies, and her Master’s in strategic public relations from George Washington University.

Cathy Duvall is the founder of Democracy Ascent Advisors, a consulting firm focused on strategic outreach and engagement to create a more functional democracy. Currently, serves as the managing consultant for the Fair Representation in Redistricting Project at New Venture Fund where her focus is to build a collaborative funding space around redistricting issues, strengthen community coalitions, and provide strategic advice to state redistricting efforts. 

Duvall comes to this work after serving for 10 years as the strategic outreach director at the Sierra Club where she worked with the vast network of staff and volunteers to win local and national policy changes around environmental justice, workers’ rights, and democracy issues, and oversaw the youth organizing and political programs. She began her career as an organizer with Environment Oregon and has served as the campaign manager and field director for numerous local, state and national political campaigns.

Duvall is a recognized leader in the DC nonprofit community, has been named two years running as "one of the top 100 most influential people in Washington DC" by Washington Life Magazine and is honored to have received the Heather Booth award for her individual contributions to community organizing.

Kim Foreman is the Executive Director for Environmental Health Watch. Kim brings nearly 20 years of experience working on environmental justice issues in Cleveland. Kim joined EHW in 1999 as a part-time health educator, and has served in the role of Executive Director since 2015.

As the Executive Director for EHW, Kim has focused on Environmental Justice Issues and adverse outcomes of environmental exposures, both indoors and outdoors, that disproportionately impact poor and minority communities. During her eighteen years with EHW, she has developed, implemented, and managed various local, direct service, grassroots projects, worked on national projects, spoken at local and national conventions, and has helped EHW obtain national attention for its work through outlets such as the New York Times and Al Jezeera English.

Kim became passionate for the work of EHW through some of her own lived experiences, including living some of the challenges that the clients they serve. It wasn’t until joining EHW that Kim realized how severely children and families were being impacted by environmental hazards in the home, like lead.

Kim Foreman holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a minor in chemistry from Case Western Reserve University. She also a licensed lead risk assessor and Roots of Success instructor. Kim lives on the West side of Cleveland and has two adult children.

John Gest is Managing Director of the Northern Ohio office of Philanthropy Ohio. He joined the Columbus-based organization – which is a statewide membership association that provides the network, tools and knowledge to help people engaged in philanthropy become more effective, powerful change agents in their communities - in 2010. 

In his role managing the Cleveland-based office, Mr. Gest works to develop and deliver educational and informational programs for the philanthropic community relating to grantmaking core competencies, professional development, funding interest areas and issues of importance to the communities across Northern Ohio.  Additionally, he handles member services and manages relationships within the largest and most generous philanthropic region in the state.

Prior to joining Philanthropy Ohio, Mr. Gest most recently served as an admission officer at Case Western Reserve University. There he was charged with recruiting undergraduate students by conducting admission interviews and making presentations at high schools, college fairs and off-campus programs throughout the nation. Back on campus, he managed the entirety of the transfer admission process and reviewed the academic and extra-curricular credentials of an increasingly larger and diverse annual docket of first-year students.

In addition to an undergraduate degree in secondary education from Bowling Green State University, the Rhode Island native holds an MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve. He is a former chair of the special programs committee at The City Club of Cleveland and currently serves as a member of the community advisory board for ideastream, which is Northeast Ohio’s premier multimedia public broadcasting system.

Alison Goebel is Executive Director of the Greater Ohio Policy Center (GOPC). She has been with GOPC since 2010 and has held a number of positions within the organization during that time. Today, Goebel is responsible for charting GOPC's strategic direction, directing the research, advocacy, and outreach teams, and securing resources for this work. She is the author of a number of research reports and policy briefs related to the revitalization of weak-market, legacy cities, transportation funding, and local governance structures in Ohio. From 2005 to 2009, Goebel periodically lived in Mansfield, Ohio where she conducted long-term qualitative research on social relationships in a small city setting. Goebel is a graduate and board member of Leadership Ohio and was elected by her class for the 2014 "Leader Among Leaders" award. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in anthropology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and received her B.A. from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio).

Claudia Y.W. Herrold serves as Philanthropy Ohio’s Chief Communications & Public Policy Officer, working in the fields she’s long had a passion for – passions that started in high school when she worked in her first political campaign and was editor of her high school newspaper. She built her skills and knowledge in journalism and political science when she attended college in Washington, D.C., and then graduate school at the University of Michigan. Claudia has worked at Philanthropy Ohio since 1998, one of two “veteran” employees who have seen the organization grow into its current vision.

When she’s not overseeing the website, blog, newsletters, reports and marketing efforts or advocating on philanthropy’s behalf with state and federal officials, Claudia plays with her grandchildren, knits, reads, gardens and plays bridge.

Caroline is a thought leader who lives, works, and designs at the intersection of education, innovation, and equity. Her work inspired the creation of equityXdesign, a powerful design framework that merges the values of equity work and innovation with the intentionality of design. Her latest venture, 228 Accelerator, catalyzes the redesign of the relationships that normalize mistreatment and oppression, builds bridges between the powerful and the powerless, and accelerates our journey to a more inclusive society.

Caroline empowers people with the creative authority to reimagine themselves as designers of human relationships. This challenge inspires her to explore innovative organizations and learning models that optimize the role of relationships, leverage technologies, and engage people as agents in their own transformation. She supports several national education organizations as they work to design and create more inclusive and responsive organizations and learning models.

Caroline’s work is rooted in more than 20 years of experience in public education, education innovation, management consulting, and engineering. She has lived the life cycle of school creation and transformation as a teacher, mentor, coach, founding principal, and investor in innovative school models. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia and a Master of Education in Learning and Teaching from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She received an additional Master of Science in Administration through New Leaders for New Schools, a principal training fellowship.

Sarah is the Director of the Heartland Fund and Rural Democracy Initiative. She also serves as a Senior Advisor to Committee on States, coaching emerging donor alliances in states from Alaska, to New Hampshire, to Alabama. Sarah previously served as Executive Director of Progress Alliance of Washington for thirteen years. In this capacity she helped found some of Washington state’s most important civic engagement organizations including the Washington Bus, Fuse, and the Win/Win Network, and co-led development of the Heroes’ Narrative project. Sarah is recognized for her expertise leading innovative campaigns integrating field experiments, digital platforms, and transformative narrative. An organizer at heart, Sarah has dedicated 25 years to working for shared prosperity, democracy, and a healthy environment. When she’s not working, she is raising four kids and enjoying the spectacular Washington mountains.

Treye Johnson is a regional outreach manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. From the Bank’s Cleveland office, he works with the community development team on current and emerging economic and community development issues.

Previously, Mr. Johnson was a program officer at Burton D. Morgan Foundation, a philanthropic organization that provides grants to support entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education throughout Northeast Ohio. He also volunteers at Hillcrest Hospital, providing support to parents with children in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Mr. Johnson holds a BA in communications from John Carroll University and an MS in sports administration from the University of Louisville.

Patrick Johnston currently serves as Vice President, Community Investments for Greater Toledo Community Foundation. In this role he oversees the Foundation’s competitive grant programs, scholarships and proactive initiatives. Patrick been with the Foundation since 2014. His employment prior to the Foundation included a Grants Developer position at Owens State Community College, as well as a variety of roles with the National Parks Service and Metroparks of the Toledo Area. He holds a B.S. in Journalism from Bowling Green State University and a M.A. in History from the University of Kentucky.

On April 1, 2013, Tom Katzenmeyer became President and CEO of the Greater Columbus Arts Council (Arts Council).  

Prior to coming to the Arts Council, he served as Senior Vice President for University Communications at The Ohio State University, where he led an office that oversaw OSU’s university-wide communications and reputation management. The office included the units of Internal Communications, Marketing Communications, Media Relations, Research Communications, and WOSU Public Media.

Katzenmeyer serves on the boards of Experience Columbus, the Columbus Clippers, YMCA of Central Ohio, the Columbus Metropolitan Library, and is a Trustee of the Crane Family Foundation at the Columbus Foundation, the board of Campus Partners for Urban Redevelopment, and on the advisory board of LiFE Sports.

He is past Board Chair of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, YMCA of Central Ohio, Columbus Metropolitan Library Foundation, Columbus Clippers, and Leadership Columbus.

He received the 2019 CEO of the Year Award (large nonprofit) from Columbus CEO Magazine; 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award and 2018 Most Admired Executive Award from Columbus Business First; and the 2017 Forte Award from the Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus.

Katzenmeyer has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in journalism from The Ohio State University.

Dan became the Executive Director of the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio in August of 2015.

He earned both his Bachelors, in elementary and secondary education, and his Master’s, in education administration with an emphasis in gifted education, from Purdue University. Dan’s Ph.D. is from Cleveland State University in urban education.

Prior to becoming Executive Director at Jennings, Dan worked in six school districts. He taught secondary science in three:

• Frankfort Schools and West Lafayette School Corporation in Indiana and Steubenville High School in Ohio.

…and served as an administrator in three:

• Maple Heights City Schools as a high school administrator and later the district’s personnel director
• five years at Kenston Local Schools as assistant superintendent, and
• seven years as superintendent of the Westlake City Schools.

In 2002, the American Association of School Administrators recognized Dan with the Paul B. Salmon Award, for his doctoral work on the change process in secondary schools, one of six nationally. He was the recipient of Cleveland State’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012 for his contributions to public education and in 2014 he was honored by the Buckeye Association of School Administrators as Ohio Superintendent of the Year. 

Dan is married to Dr. Heather Keenan, who serves as the gifted coordinator for the North Olmsted City Schools. Together they have two sons and reside in Westlake, Ohio.

Stephen Love joined the Foundation in 2014 as part of the community responsive grantmaking team. In this capacity, Stephen also managed the Foundation’s Summer Internship Program and oversaw implementation of the Cleveland Foundation Public Service Fellowship. In 2018, Stephen became the Foundation’s Environment Program Officer, overseeing development of an Environmental Grantmaking strategy, including efforts to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the parks and greenspaces we enjoy by supporting policies and practices that link environmental protection, climate action, health, equity and economic prosperity.

Prior to joining the foundation in 2014, Stephen worked for the Cuyahoga Land Bank, researching and compiling property data for vacant property reuse opportunities as part of the President’s Special Projects team. Additionally, he served as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, focusing on neighborhood stabilization and urban agriculture projects. Stephen founded a volunteer beach cleanup and advocacy effort directed at improving Euclid Beach Park. Previously, he served on the board of directors of the Cleveland Lakefront Conservancy and the Northeast Shores Development Corporation. 

Jen Matheson joined Northwest Health Foundation in 2014. As Director of Programs, she leads the program team in carrying out many of NWHF's ambitious initiatives.

In her prior role at the Native American Youth and Family Center, Jen developed and implemented a culturally responsive college and career program to address the inequities in employment rates and secondary and post-secondary attainment for youth of color. She also served on the leadership team of the Community Works Project (CWP) and provided leadership for homeownership and asset-building programs, including the Elder’s Homeownership Retention Program, the Home Repair Savings Program and other outreach and advocacy efforts to address Portland’s minority homeownership gap. Prior to that, Jen served as the Outreach Manager at 211info for five years, establishing connections with community networks across Oregon and Southwest Washington. 

Jen received a bachelor's degree from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. She is also a graduate of Neighborhood Partnerships’ Advocates College and completed Rockwood Leadership Institute’s Art of Leadership program. Jen served on the Proud Ground board of directors for six years and is trained as a Healthy Homes Specialist and a Master Home Environmentalist. Jen currently serves as the chair of the City Club of Portland’s Advocacy Board and on the steering committee for the Early Childhood Funders Learning Circle.

Jen spent her childhood living around the United States and moved to Portland from Minneapolis 20 years ago. She enjoys her neighborhood of St. Johns, because she has stellar neighbors, and she can walk to beautiful parks and delicious restaurants.

Faron McLurkin has joined NFG’s staff as the Senior Program Manager for the Integrated Rural Strategies Group (IRSG), which brings together funders working to build long-term support for rural organizing infrastructure that centers values of racial justice and builds sustainable power in rural communities. 

Faron was a founding member of IRSG in his former role as Program Officer at the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock (Veatch). During his time at Veatch, Faron oversaw its New York state and Environmental Justice portfolios. He has also served as the Executive Director of the Center for Third World Organizing, one of the oldest racial justice organizations in the country, and as a national organizing director for several unions.

In his new role leading IRSG, Faron will utilize his background in political education, philanthropic grantmaking, and organizing for social change to help drive the growth and advancement of the group’s programming. His focus will include developing programming for funder audiences to promote rural organizing opportunities; creating vehicles for moving resources to support rural communities; and identifying grantmaking strategies, grantees, and partners in the field to inform this group’s work.

Brian has served as Executive Director of Nonprofit VOTE since 2014. During his tenure, he has worked successfully to raise the visibility of Nonprofit VOTE's work on the national stage and worked to bring the voter engagement strategies of Nonprofit VOTE to scale, leveraging new resources, documenting the impact of its work, and forging new partnerships. During his tenure, Nonprofit VOTE also assumed management of the collaborative National Voter Registration Day event which it has run since 2017, including its most successful years to date.

Prior to his tenure at Nonprofit VOTE, Brian worked for over 20 years in the nonprofit space. He served as Executive Director of Boston-based United for a Fair Economy (UFE), an organization recognized for its sentinel work to raise the veil of growing economic inequality. While at UFE, he co-authored the book The Self Made Myth, with a forward by Bill Gates, Sr. Brian also served 12 years as Executive Director for Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, a statewide coalition working to pass comprehensive tax reform. A south Louisiana native with Cajun roots, Brian started his career as a community organizer in Louisiana before moving on to organize in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Jill Miller is president of Bethesda Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization that is both co-sponsor of TriHealth, a leading integrated health care system in Southwest Ohio, and creator of bi3,  grantmaking initiative to transform the health and well being of all people in Greater Cincinnati. 

Under her leadership, bi3 fueled new care models to reduce infant mortality, improved access to care for people with disabilities, enhanced end-of-life care, while lowering healthcare costs. Addressing these issues are essential for creating significant improvement in community health and in healthcare delivery.

Earlier in her career, Jill founded and led the Joey Votto Foundation, where she managed and facilitated grants, created new grassroots programs, and built meaningful relationships with community partners. She served as development director at Ronald McDonald House, where she exceeded fundraising goals, facilitated organizational change, and led efforts to empower board members and community volunteers. Jill also has held leadership roles in the financial and insurance industries.

In 2020, Jill served as chair of the Funders Collaborative that helped guide the decision making processes associated with the COVID-19 Regional Response Fund.  The Fund rapidly mobilized to provide community grants to support the most vulnerable in our community.  Jill also serves on Miami University’s Economics Advisory Board, Camp Joy’s Board of Trustees, The Health Collaborative’s Accountable Health Communities Advisory Board, Cradle Cincinnati Advisory Board, and Bethesda Foundation Board of Trustees.  

She is a 2016 YWCA Rising Star, a member of Leadership Cincinnati Class 39 and the Cincinnati Business Courier’s 2016 Forty Under 40 class. Jill holds a Business Economics degree from Miami University and MBA from Xavier University.  

Lila Mills has been with Neighborhood Connections for 8 years where she has focused on lifting up the stories of residents making positive change in Cleveland and East Cleveland -- first as the editor of the grassroots newspaper Greater University Circle Neighborhood Voice and, since 2015, as the program’s communications manager. Born and raised on the southeast side of Cleveland, Lila spent 10 years as a journalist prior to coming to Neighborhood Connections.

John Mitterholzer is the Foundation’s program director for Climate and Environmental Justice. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2008, he was a program officer at The Cleveland Foundation. John is the former chair of the Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, the current co-chair of the Climate and Energy Funders Group and an active member of the Environmental Grantmakers Association.

He holds a B.A. in history from Baldwin Wallace University and an M.A. in history from the University of Memphis.

Michael serves as Chief Marketing Officer at the Cleveland Foundation, providing strategic communications and marketing oversight for the world’s first community foundation. Prior to joining the foundation in 2013, Michael was a managing director at the global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, where he served as a counselor to Fortune 100 corporate and financial clients. Michael also served as a senior vice president and partner at the international integrated communications firm Fleishman-Hillard, leading the company’s LGBT outreach and engagement practice. Michael began his career at Ketchum Public Relations in New York and D.C., working in the corporate and social marketing practices.

Whitney Parnell is a Black millennial activist, singer, and the Founder and CEO of Service Never Sleeps, a nonprofit that empowers individuals and communities to catalyze social justice through service and Allyship. Her movement work involves equipping effective allies through truth-telling, bridgebuilding, empathy, and action. She grew up between Latin America and West Africa as a Foreign Service child. At Washington University in St. Louis, Whitney doubled majored in English and Spanish, and minored in Communications and Journalism, during which she also embraced her calling as an activist. Whitney’s passion for service and social justice brought her to Washington, DC after college to serve with City Year, and then work in homeless services, before founding Service Never Sleeps in 2015. Whitney is also a musician, and is releasing a social justice album called "What Will You Do," with the goal of using empathy through song to ignite action.

As President of the Field Foundation, Angelique designed a journey with staff, board and nonprofit partners to center racial justice in the Foundation’s work. Over the past four years, Field Foundation has changed how it funds, who it funds, has created accountability structures for community to review its work, rethought metrics, created heatmaps that illustrate the design of inequity within Chicago and has updated its investment policy.

Through strategic partnerships with other foundations, under Angelique’s tenure the Field Foundation has doubled the size of its giving and its programming – allowing it to fund in the areas of Justice, Art, Leadership Investment and Media & Storytelling. These partnerships allow Field Foundation to fund individuals, for profit organizations along with nonprofits. Additionally, in 2020 the Field Foundation relocated to the nation’s first collaborative community workspace dedicated to social impact entitled FBRK Impact House, an entity she co-conceptualized with former Chicago Bear, Israel Idonije.

Power chairs the boards of 6018North and Enrich Chicago, an organization she co-founded, dedicated to racial equity in the arts and serves on the board of Forefront Illinois and the Advisory Committee of the Illinois Justice Project. Angelique co-chaired Mayor Lightfoot’s Transition Team, serves on the Mayor’s Taskforce for COVID Recovery and is a 2015 Fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago.

One of the United States’ foremost educational futurists, Katherine leads KnowledgeWorks’ exploration of the future of learning. In addition to setting the strategy for the organization’s strategic foresight work, she speaks and writes about the trends shaping education over the next decade and helps education stakeholders strategize about how to become active agents of change in shaping the future.

Since 2007, Katherine has worked with education stakeholders across the United States and beyond to apply insights from KnowledgeWorks’ forecasts on the future of learning to their own contexts. She designs and facilitates generative conversations that help participants explore future possibilities and identify their priorities for responding to the changing landscape. Katherine also helps people keep their eyes on the horizon and explore emerging issues by leading the development of comprehensive ten-year forecasts, deep dives into specific topics, strategy guides and experiential futures resources and by writing articles and blog posts about the future of learning.

Since joining KnowledgeWorks in 2006, Katherine has also led organizational development initiatives, contributed to national collaborations informed by the fields of systems thinking and organizational change and managed programs to foster teaching and professional learning innovations and to encourage collaborative knowledge management among educators.

Katherine holds a bachelor’s in English from Ohio Wesleyan University, a master’s in English from the University of Iowa and an MBA from The Open University with emphases on creativity, innovation and change and on knowledge management. She also earned a certificate in Foresight from the University of Houston and pursued training in foresight from the Institute for the Future. Katherine is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists.

J. Robert ‘Bob’ Reeder has served as a Program Director for Rural LISC sinceRobert ‘Bob’ Reeder has served as a Program Director for Rural LISC since 2005.

Bob is a 14 year veteran of Rural LISC and has built a 30 year career devoted to social and economic justice and equity; and, comprehensive community and economic development.   He is a National Charettes Institute certified community facilitator.

He helped create the Rural LISC ‘Arts and Culture Based Creative Economic Development’ funding initiative.  And, has worked with several national Arts and Culture-based private and governmental entities that provide funding as well as logistical support for organizations working to include creative place making among the range of comprehensive strategies utilized to help in the economic revival of distressed rural communities. 

He currently serves as: Advisory Board Co-Chair of ‘The Art of Community: Rural SC’; Editorial Advisory Board member of The Journal of Appalachian Health; Advisory Board member of ‘The South Carolina Rural Resources Coalition’; a member of the South Carolina Association of Community Economic Development’s Board of Directors “Rural Prosperity: committee; a member of the ArtPlace America Art +Agriculture Working group; a Smithsonian Institute Museum On Main Street Rural Crossroads Exhibition National Partner; a member of the Appalachian Funders Network Arts and Culture Working Group;  a Furman University Dick Riley Leadership Institute Fellow;  a a workshop resource team member for the Riley Mayors’ Design Fellowship and,  is a SC Arts Commission Leo Twiggs Scholar.

JD from Vanderbilt University School of Law.

Cecilia is currently the Executive Director of the Nordson Corporation Foundation based in Westlake, OH.  She has been at the Foundation since 1999 starting as the Program Officer.  Prior to Nordson, Cecilia was employed in the field of education.  She is actively involved in the Philanthropy Ohio Education Advisory Committee and Corporate Funders group, ReacHigher, the Lorain County P-16 council and the STEM education workgroup with the Association of Corporate Contribution Professionals.  She has worked as an advisor for Cleveland Scholarship Programs and the Educational Opportunity Program at Tri-C.  Cecilia has also been a part-time instructor at Cleveland State University in the School of Education.  She holds a M.Ed. from CSU with a concentration in Adult Learning and Development and a B.A. in Psychology with a concentration in Child Development from Smith College.

Cecilia is the 2015 Leadership Lorain County Eric Nord Award for Excellence in Leadership recipient and is currently on the boards of Philanthropy Ohio and Association of Corporate Contributions Professionals.

Shaady Salehi is a strategist, facilitator, and network builder who has dedicated nearly 20 years to advancing social impact across various sectors. She currently serves as the director of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, a 5-year learning and advocacy initiative to make trust-based practices the norm in the philanthropic sector. She also is Principal and Founder of Skyview Strategies, a social impact consultancy for nonprofits, foundations, and changemakers. Previously, Shaady was Managing Director of Distribution and Impact at ITVS, where she led a team to advance the reach and impact of documentaries on public television. Prior to ITVS, she was Executive Director of Active Voice, a pioneering organization that uses storytelling to catalyze social change. Shaady is a 2014 Aspen Institute Fellow and sits on the board of Let It Ripple, a nonprofit that experiments with collaborative filmmaking for the common good. She holds an M.S. in Strategic Communications from Columbia University, an M.A. in Anthropology from UC Davis, and a B.A. in Anthropology from Oberlin College. She is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio and currently lives in San Francisco.

Shoshanna Spector is Executive Director of Faith in Indiana igniting faith communities and marginalized peoples to act collectively for racial and economic justice. Her efforts resulted in millions redirected to end mass incarceration and gun violence, grow pathways to good jobs, and promote immigrant inclusion. Ms. Spector brings over 20 years of experience in the field of social change. She is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Leadership Fellow, whose work is a national model of engaging communities to advance a Culture of Health.

Dr. Julie Sweetland is a senior advisor at the FrameWorks Institute, a nonprofit think tank that equips progressive change-makers to lead productive public conversations on scientific and social justice issues.

Since joining FrameWorks in 2012, Dr. Sweetland has designed, co-constructed, and led powerful learning experiences for nonprofit communicators seeking to tap into the power of narrative to drive change. In the process, she has supported advocates, community organizers, philanthropists, and issue experts to find the right frame and work in coalition to change the conversation. Her work has spanned a number of social issues – public health, climate change, education, youth justice reform, racial justice, and more. 

Prior to joining FrameWorks, Julie spent over a decade working to transform teaching and learning as a classroom teacher and teacher educator. At Center for Inspired Teaching, she designed an innovative teacher residency which has since trained hundreds of progressive educators who work throughout DC public schools.  Julie's linguistic research has focused on the intersection of language and race; on the role of language style and language attitudes on student learning; and on effective professional learning for teachers. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and completed her MA and PhD in linguistics at Stanford University. She lives in a democratically-run cohousing community with her amazing daughter in Washington, DC.

Edwin Torres joined Grantmakers in the Arts as president & CEO in October 2017. Torres served on the GIA board of directors from 2011 through 2016. He most recently served as deputy commissioner of cultural affairs for New York City, where he worked on elements of the city’s long-term sustainability plan, a study of and efforts to support the diversity of the city’s cultural organizations and the city’s first cultural plan. Prior to joining the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, he was a program officer with The Rockefeller Foundation, where he worked on the foundation’s support for arts and culture, jobs access, and resilience. He has also served in the dean’s office at Parsons the New School for Design, on the arts and culture team at The Ford Foundation as well as on the staff of the Bronx Council on the Arts. He holds a Master of Arts in Art History from Hunter College and a Master of Science in Management from The New School.

Emily Vigue joined the Foundation as Programs Coordinator in July 2019 after graduating from Marietta College with degrees in political science and international leadership studies. While at Marietta, Emily enjoyed connecting with residents of Appalachia through her work as student body president and her position on a local nonprofit board. Emily became interested in the unique history of Appalachia after serving as an Americorps Intern in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. While there she participated in emergency FEMA disaster relief during the 2016 floods that affected the region.

Raised in Junction City in Perry County, Emily now resides in Lancaster and spends her free time reading, gardening, and visiting friends. She is excited to be with the Foundation to give back to the region that has given her so much.

Tony Wells is business veteran recognized as a successful business entrepreneur, family foundation, and board director. In 2001, Tony and his wife Dana created the Wells Foundation to provide technology and social entrepreneurship grants to nonprofit organizations. Their mission statement is “Create value for the community by developing stronger nonprofit leaders and investing in the next generation of social innovations.” The three pillars of the Wells Foundation include:

Think Entrepreneurially - Willingness to take calculated risk and apply business acumen for social good.

Always Innovate - Using problem solving, idea generation and design thinking to develop new solutions.

Serve Our Community - Embrace diversity, learn from others, and catalyze change.

Leon has over 25 years in Information Technology, currently as the Chief of Digital Innovation & Chief Information Officer at the Cleveland Foundation. In this dual role, Leon is part of the executive committee leading the foundation’s Information & Technology Services department, focusing on strategic and transformational use of technology and data within the foundation and the philanthropic sector. Additionally, as Chief of Digital Innovation, Leon oversees the foundation’s Digital Excellence grant-making strategy geared toward “building a stronger, more equitable and inclusive digital community” tackling Cleveland’s digital divide; along with elevating Greater Cleveland’s position as a intelligent / smart city and regional technology innovation hub.

Jennifer Zimmerman is the Director of Grants and Evaluation for bi3, Bethesda Inc.’s grantmaking initiative to transform the health and well being of all people in Greater Cincinnati. Jennifer leads the development of bi3’s strategy and collaborative relationships to achieve its mission. She partners with grantees to plan, implement and evaluate grant-funded initiatives. Previously, Jennifer was the principle of JCZ Consulting, LLC, a consulting firm offering evaluation, program development and strategic planning services to nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. She has served as the director of the Consortium for Resilient Young Children, director of evaluation for Learning Grove (formerly Children, Inc.) and was part of the evaluation staff at Interact for Health (formerly the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati). Jennifer serves on the Cradle Cincinnati Advisory Board, GreenLight Cincinnati Advisory Board and Bethesda Foundation Research and Grants Committee. She is a member of the Cincinnati Chamber’s C-Change Class 2 and holds a Master’s degree in Social Work with a focus in social and economic development.